The News: September 2003 Archives

The Associated Press has an article about the 31 new cardinals appointed by Pope John Paul II. In the headline and opening sentence, they used two of the four words they, and every other secular media outlet, must mention in an article about the Pope. The words are:

1. Frail
2. Ailing
3. Conservative (never "orthodox")
4. Abortion (the only issue they think they understand because of the extensive political ramifications)

"The College of Cardinals is already mainly made up of like-minded conservatives," Nicole Winfield writes. The implication being that the Holy Father needs to start appointing liberals who will argue with him.

Still, there was one ray of light. She says later in the article, "One of the 31 on the list was unidentified, perhaps because he works in a country where the church is oppressed." No mocking quotation marks around "oppressed" -- she recognizes that in certain parts of the Earth, the Church is indeed oppressed.

Based on the massive freak-out of The Weather Channel and local DC-news outlets, much of DC is totally shut down. Federal Govt. Schools. Wachovia bank branches. Even the local food-by-the-pound buffet is closing at 2pm.

You'd think that the eye of the storm is stalled somewhere over 14th and K in downtown DC and is blowing the Capitol Rotunda over to Union Station.

Meanwhile, my 60 minute commute was 35 minutes. The phone has rung about 3 times since 9am. Most of my customers are closed, which means I can get some serious work done today. I'm looking out my window and the winds are picking up a bit but as of 10am it's a breezy, cloudy day.

We're probably shutting down in time to hit the buffet before they close...

Finally, there's somebody who can tell publicity hound Mitchell Garabedian where to get off. He's a lawyer for some of the abuse plaintiffs, and he was ready to turn a Saturday meeting between ten abuse victims and Abp. O'Malley into a media circus.

The talks were to be held at a location not announced publicly, but attorney Garabedian, according to the Associated Press, invited journalists to come to the site where he would give briefings during breaks in the action.

Attorneys Carmen Durso and Roderick MacLeish Jr., on the other hand, representing two other groups of plaintiffs, didn't like the idea of having to putting their clients through a media gauntlet to get into the building, so they asked Abp. O'Malley to postpone the session, and the meeting for Saturday is off.

These news photos (which you may have missed) have been circulating on the net. Click on each thumbnail to see the full image.